Carl Horowitz

Carl F. Horowitz is director of the Organized Labor Accountability Project of the National Legal and Policy Center, a Townhall.com Gold Partner organization dedicated to promoting ethics in American public life.

What we have here is the makings of a large-scale lobbying operation. And given that 13 members of Congress were listed as attendees/speakers, NAN already has a head start and a congressional seal of approval how else could Sharpton have been able to hold his shindig in the Rayburn and Dirksen buildings? Listed as participating Representatives: G. K. Butterfield (D-N.C.); Judy Chu (D-Calif.); James Clyburn (D-S.C.); Keith Ellison (D-Minn.); and Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.); John Conyers (D-Mich.); Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Tex.); Terri Sewell (D-Ala.); and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.). Listed as participating Senators: Gary Peters (D-Mich.); Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.); Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.); and Tim Scott (R-S.C.).

Its a common expression among young adults who come to work in the nations capital: I want to make a difference. Al Sharpton, no stranger to Washington during the Obama years and no longer young, definitely wants to make a difference. But it will be the wrong kind.

The accelerated transformation of the American economy and polity into a mandatory racially-based spoils system was a defining trait of President Barack Obama’s first term in office. Though perhaps understated, it is set to become an even more defining trait of his second.

Is it possible to be sympathetic toward an ostentatious Florida billionaire family at risk of losing their unfinished dream home – the largest residence in the U.S. – because of a mortgage crisis which, in a modest way, they helped to create? Actually, it is…sort of. A new movie documentary, “The Queen of Versailles,” shows why. Intentionally or not, it also makes a powerful case for why government shouldn’t cover losses incurred by high-rolling lending and borrowing.

In the immediate aftermath of its unfortunate Thursday ruling on the constitutionality of the Obama health care law, it’s easy to forget that the Supreme Court gets things right from time to time. A decision one week earlier, on June 21, was such an occasion. And at least part of the nation’s work force is a little freer for it.

The European Union (EU) is now in a full-scale panic over how to arrange financial bailouts for its least capable members. Yet few officials within the 27-nation federation have pondered the possibility that the best arrangement may be no bailout – and no EU as well.

‘Occupy Wall Street’ and dozens of similar protests around the nation were only the beginning. The Service Employees International Union, as much as any organization in or outside the ranks of organized labor, is making sure of it.

After some 500 days of negotiation, the deed was done. On Thursday, February 9, attorneys general representing nearly all 50 states announced that five major banks – Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo – agreed to pay a combined $25 billion over three years in civil penalties and loan write-downs for having serviced mortgage foreclosure paperwork without proper review.

Occupy Wall Street and dozens of offshoot groups have proven far more adept at moral theater than policymaking. Yet their operative assumption – economic inequality is reaching crisis proportions – has become the coin of a wider realm. Governments, beginning with our own, thus must “do something.” President Obama, for one, is listening – and acting.

The phrase “jobs Americans won’t do” all too often serves as a rationale for maintaining high levels of immigration. Get set for an equally dubious idea to justify mass immigration: “housing Americans can’t buy.” Senators Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, among others, are believers. And they’re offering a sweet deal.

As Occupy Wall Street demonstrations have gone national and now global, observers are taking note of the prominent role of labor unions in this anti-business crusade. The rote denunciations of “corporate greed” at these events could be lifted from almost any AFL-CIO convention speech.

One would be hard-pressed to deny that mandating equal outcomes among racial and sexual groups over time has become the official coin of the realm in this country. What is perhaps most remarkable is the absence of any real political opposition to this regime.

The National Labor Relations Board – these days known by many of its critics as the National Organized Labor Relations Board – must have a pretty broad definition of the words "coercion" and "retaliation."

If ever a federal agency were a candidate for termination, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) would make for a good choice. The BIA combines patronage and ethnic separatism into a single package, wasting sizable tax dollars in the process.